Galloping Meadows
by no escape from reality
Summary: Lily doesn't get her dream job and has to move out of her apartment. She doesn't want to move back in with her parents but she doesn't have any other choice until she sees a roommate wanted ad. Will she find more than a roommate in Galloping Meadows?
1. Roommates

**Roommates**

"Thank you, Miss Evans. We'll send you an owl once we've made our decision." The man stood up and straightened his black dress robes before shaking her hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you."

"You too, sir. I hope to hear from you soon." Lily shook his hand a little over zealously and mentally kicked herself for it. She turned toward the exit, but stumbled and had to catch herself on the desk. What was wrong with her? She was never _this_ clumsy!

She managed to make it to the door without embarrassing herself further. She turned the brass handle, and with her face the same shade as her vibrant red hair, Lily walked out into a sea of people rushing to get where they needed to be.

---

"You don't understand!" Lily exclaimed. "I don't have a chance of getting that job."

"Calm down, child. Take a deep breath. You'll be just fine. Who wouldn't want to hire you?"

"Mom! I wasn't myself in the interview. Didn't you hear a thing I said? I was clumsy. Why on earth would they let someone who can't even stand up without falling over or breaking something work in a place where if you knock anything over, you could blow the whole building up?"

"Stop exaggerating." Her mother sighed, pushing a piece of graying red hair behind her ear.

Lily pulled up her sleeve and look at her mother expectantly. "Well that's a nasty little bugger. How'd you manage that?"

She yanked her sleeve down again with more force than was necessary. "I got that 'nasty little bugger' when I ran into the doorway during my interview.

"Well, there are other jobs out there, dear." Lily glared at her mother wordlessly for a moment before disappearing.

---

Over the week, Lily had calmed down about the job interview. She convinced herself that she didn't even want to be a brewer. Let other people spend their days stirring smelly, potentially dangerous potions.

Despite her proclamation of not ever, in a million years, wanting to be a brewer, the day that the owl arrived in her apartment, her world came crashing down around her.

Her apartment, she realized, would be too expensive to stay in without a roommate. That, however, was not possible. The apartment only had one bedroom.

With only a week and a half left on her lease and her low paying job as a clerk in Flourish and Blotts, Lily set out to find a new place to live.

She looked at run down apartment after run down apartment. She looked at apartments during her lunch breaks and for hours after work. There wasn't anything in her price range, and there were no roommate wanted ads anywhere. The whole world, it seemed, had a place to live but her.

With just two days left on her lease, her things were mostly packed and ready to move back home with her mom and dad.

She woke up on her day off to the _Daily Prophet_ owl tapping gently on her window. She opened one eye slowly, and then the other. She pulled herself out of bed and opened the window wide enough for the owl to enter. She dropped a few knuts into the small leather bag around its skinny leg and it flew off again.

She made herself comfortable at the table in her now empty kitchen and in a last ditch effort, opened the paper to the classified section. She couldn't believe her eyes. There, in black and white, within her price range, was an ad for a roommate.

"Two bedroom apartment. Low rent. All utilities included in rent. Nice building. Male or female roommate wanted as soon as possible."

Lily laughed and ran to the bathroom. She took a quick shower and rushed to get ready. She was going to get that apartment. She grabbed the paper and went to the listed address.

---

The building was amazing compared to all the places she had looked at already. It was clean, and close to work. While Galloping Meadows seemed to be a strange name, she thought that all in all it would be prefect.

She opened the door and walked into a spacious lobby. A kind middle aged lady sat behind the desk. "Can I help you, darling?" she asked, looking at Lily with her kind eyes.

"I'm looking for apartment 2B."

The lady smiled. "Up those stairs there and it's the second door on the right."

"Thank you." Lily practically ran up the stairs two at a time. She skidded around the corner and went up to the second door, fighting to catch her breath before she knocked. Above a peek hole in large brass writing was 2B.

She reached her hand up to the door and knocked three times. She clutched the newspaper so tightly that it began to wrinkle in her grasp. After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened.

A tall boy of her age stood and looked at her through brown eyes behind small metal framed glasses. He reached up and ruffled his hair, a large smile forming on his lips as he regarded the girl on the other side of the door way staring at him with wide eyes.

"Hello, Lily. Long time no see." The boy continued grinning. It was a smile that Lily could remember clearly from her days at Hogwarts. _Oh boy, _she thought, _this can't be good._

"James! What a surprise."


	2. Move In Day

**Move In Day**

"James! What a surprise."

---

Lily panicked, looking for a way out of her current situation. The last place on earth she wanted to be was in James Potter's doorway, especially after what happened on the train home from Hogwarts the summer before.

"I think I have the wrong apartment," she said, quickly turning to leave.

She wasn't quick enough. The smile on James' face widened. "I'm sure you do." She turned back to him and he eyed the newspaper in her hand.

"Did I mention that this is a purely magic complex?" She looked at him, confused. "I mean in the ad. Did I mention that in the ad?"

"Oh. No, you didn't," Lily answered. She immediately realized that she had fallen into his trap. He was too clever for his own good.

"So you _are_ in the right place." James opened the door a little more and motioned for her to come in. Reluctantly, she did so.

It wasn't a huge apartment, but it was bigger than her old one. It had an actual living room. She wouldn't have to entertain in the kitchen anymore. Both bedrooms were equally nice, and the bathroom was plenty big for two people to share. The apartment was perfect, but the roommate…

"Sorry about the mess. I'm not fully moved in yet. This is my first day here. I was hoping to find someone soon, but I didn't expect this soon." Lily glanced around and for the first time noticed opened boxes with clothes and other items hanging out of the tops. Messy writing on the side declared what room the box belonged in.

"It's fully furnished, too," he added as she eyed the sofa.

"It's wonderful…"she said still looking around.

"So, you'll take it?" he asked quickly while she was still distracted.

"Of course!" she said before she realized what she had done. "I mean –"

He cut her off. "You can move in as soon as you want." He seemed excited. This scared her a little. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"We need to have a few rules first, Potter."

He laughed.

"Anything you want."

"If you stay out late and get drunk, please, dear god, be quiet. I work the morning shift."

James laughed again. "Wow, you don't think much of me, do you? I go to school Lily. I would be kicked out of the program if I pulled something like that."

Lily left herself a mental note to ask what he was going to school for before continuing. "If you have any women friends over, keep it down. There's no need to prove your manliness to me because I don't care."

"No women friends for me, Lily. I haven't met anyone that I thought was worth it after, you know, what happened." His eyes seemed to dull a little at the memory, but he continued. "I would ask the same of you anyway. Anything else?"

"Yeah," she said. "Stay out of my stuff, and don't eat my food."

---

Lily walked up the four flights of stairs to her old apartment. She couldn't believe what she had just done. She agreed to move in with James Potter, the boy who she…well, she wouldn't think about that now.

She unlocked the door and shut it quietly behind her, leaning against it. What was she going to do? She didn't think she could live with him after everything that had happened. She had no choice now; she couldn't just change her mind. They'd already signed all of the papers.

_Well,_ she reasoned with herself, _at least I won't be moving back in with Mom and Dad._ She sighed and stood up straight. She looked around the room to see what she had left to pack before tomorrow.

She flicked her wand a few times and several items flew into boxes waiting open on the floor. After she was satisfied, she made a broad, swishing motion with her wand and all the boxes closed. She then moved them over near the door and repeated the same thing in her bedroom, leaving out only her bedding and a change of clothes.

She crawled into bed for the last time in her own apartment. She couldn't sleep that night. She couldn't stop thinking about the way his eyes lit up when he saw it was her knocking on his door. Surely he couldn't still have feelings for her?

"_No women friends for me, Lily. Haven't met anyone that I thought was worth it after you know, what happened."_

She tossed and turned all night, wondering how it was going to work out between her and James. She wasn't sure he could handle "just friends" and she knew that she couldn't avoid him any longer now that they shared an apartment.

With less than three hours of sleep, Lily got out of bed. It was cold and rainy. She sighed. This couldn't be a good sign.

She began banishing boxes to her new apartment, and soon there was nothing left but a small table with two chairs, a bed and a dresser with a drawer that wouldn't close all the way.

She walked down to the lobby to return her key. Because she lived in a muggle apartment building she insisted that she had been slowly moving all of her things out over the past few weeks when questions were asked about her belongings.

The superintendent did a quick walk through of the small apartment and determined that there was no outstanding damage that needed to be taken care of.

---

Less than an hour later, Lily was sitting amid piles of boxes in her new bedroom. She was exhausted, but no where near finished putting things away. She glanced at her watch. She had fifteen minutes to get to work.

She hurried to the door, tripping over a box on the way, spilling its contents out on the floor. She bent down to pick up the scattered pictures, not really looking at them. The last picture was the one that caught her eye. She was walking away from a boy with messy black hair and glasses who looked like he was about to cry. He glared at the camera and sat down with his face in his hands before the sequence started over.

She looked at the picture for a good five minutes before she remembered she had to be at work. She gingerly placed it back in the box and left the apartment with the feelings of guilt that she fought almost a year to suppress creeping over her.


	3. Forgiving Past Mistakes

**Forgiving Past Mistakes**

A soft bell tinkled throughout Flourish and Blots. Lily looked up from her station behind the counter. She smiled at the girl. _She looks familiar,_ Lily thought. _Why do I know her?_ She let her eyes follow the girl to the gardening section of the shop. She stared hard at the girl. _Tall, black hair, likes to grow stuff…_

"Lily Evans!" Lily had been too busy trying to remember who the girl was that she didn't notice another person enter the shop. She looked up into the tan, beaming face of her friend Misty. "I've missed you!"

"I missed you too, Misty!" Lily exclaimed, jumping up and going around the counter to her friend. "How was your trip?" He hugged her and then gave her a good once over. Her formerly pale friend was now sun kissed.

"It was wonderful. I went to your place, but the guy in the lobby said you'd moved. I was hoping that that you'd be here." Misty pulled her hair up into a pony tail and then let another smile take over her face. "And you were!"

Lily smiled and shook her head. "Of course I'm here, where else would I be?"

"I don't know. You still haven't told me why you moved, by the way." Misty leaned up against the counter as if she was getting ready for a good story.

Lily was about to being when the girl from before impatiently cleared her throat. "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. What can I do for you today?" Lily asked politely, walking back behind the counter.

The girl didn't say anything just flicked her hair behind her shoulder and handed Lily the money. She snatched her bag and turned on her heel without saying thank you.

"Ugh. I can't _stand_ Bellatrix Black." Misty shook her head as she watched after the girl's retreating back.

"I knew I remembered her from somewhere." Lily wrinkled her nose. "Anyway, So, I had this interview…" Lily retold her story to Misty, who responded in all the correct places with "ooh's" and "I know's!".

"So…You live with James? I can't believe this. This is huge!" Misty was too excited for Lily's taste.

"You don't understand. We haven't, you know, talked about it yet." Misty rolled her eyes, but Lily continued. "I don't know what I was thinking." She shook her head and then changed the subject back to Misty.

"Oh! Do you want to see pictures?" Lily's eyes went wide. She groaned and slumped down onto the stool she was sitting on. "Well, a simple 'no' would've worked wonders," Misty said, a little disappointed.

"No, no it's not that. This morning I found a picture from the train when I was," Lily sighed and went on, "when I was leaving."

"You mean when you walked out on possibly the best thing you ever had?" Misty asked, examining her fingernails so she didn't have to make eye contact with Lily.

"I wish you wouldn't say that." Lily sighed again and started straightening the books on the display around the counter. "What would you have done in that situation?" Lily asked, starting to get angry.

Misty shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't matter what I would do anyway. I wasn't the one in that situation. Besides, I think maybe it's a sign that you guys live together. You are supposed to patch things up and give it another go."

"Easy for you to say," Lily muttered just loud enough for Misty to hear. "Just because you got great marks in divination doesn't mean that you know everything."

"It does," Misty assured her. "I have to get going. It was great seeing you! Oh, and make sure you talk to James tonight!" She added over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

"Yeah, yeah" Lily said, sitting back down on the stool behind the counter.

_Why should _I _apologize to him? He's the one that made me walk away from him! Maybe I was a little harsh. It was, after all, meant to be a joke and in his defense, he had no idea what had just happened…_

Lily sighed and started moving things around on the counter again. She looked at the clock. It wasn't even time for her to take her lunch yet. The day was never going to end.

---

"**Lily! Look!" she turned from her conversation with Peter to look at James. He grinned wickedly and tossed a chocolate frog in the air. He muttered a spell and chunks of chocolate flew everywhere as the frog exploded into pieces. "Another one bites the dust!" James started to laugh, but Lily's eyes were starting to fill with tears. He didn't notice.**

**He did it again. "Isn't that hilarious? The first thing I did with my magic license was blow something up!" The compartment erupted in laughter. **

**Peter shouted "Kill it!" and James sent another frog flying through the air. It was soon replaced with small chunks like the others before it.**

"**James, stop it." Lily said, wiping her eyes. "Please…" He didn't hear her because of the laughter. Peter was laughing so hard that he was leaning on her for support. She stood so suddenly that it sent Peter flying sideways onto the seat she had been sitting in. This made everyone laugh harder. No one noticed that her tears weren't tears of mirth. **

"**STOP IT!" The boys in the compartment quieted at once, looking at her curiously. She shook her head and turned to leave, but then thinking better of it, she turned back around to have words with James.**

"**I can't believe you would think that was funny! I can't take this. You can take your supposed proposal of friendship and shove it. It's over for me." Sirius dropped the camera he was holding and a flash lit up the compartment just as she was turning to leave. She didn't look back. **

**She didn't look back when James called after her, and she promised herself that she never would.**

**---**

"Hello? I'm home!" Lily called when she got home that night. She put her wand on the stand by the door and went into the kitchen. "I thought I smelled something."

James was standing over the stove stirring something with his wand. He turned around and grinned. "Girls are always attracted to good smelling things."

"I never said it was a good smell," Lily said, sitting down at the table. "What is that?"

"It's my specialty," James said, handing her a spoon proudly. "Chili!"

Lily wrinkled her nose, but tried it anyway. "It's not bad for being what it is," she said, surprised. James sat down across from her at the table. "Do you mind if the others come over tonight? It's kind of our thing." Lily shrugged.

"Can we talk before they get here?" She fidgeted in her seat and avoided looking at him when she asked this. "About the train last year."

"Yeah, sure." It was James' turn to fidget.

"Ok," Lily started. She paused for a second, collecting her thoughts. "Well, you know how I got, well, upset?" James nodded. Lily swallowed. "There was more to it than immaturity."

"I figured…you usually laughed at my jokes, not walk off in tears and never speak to me again." James sounded a little bitter.

"Well, I got an owl from my mom and dad that day. My grandmother died, you know, the one that I lived with when Mom was really sick." James looked up and saw that her eyes were starting to water up.

"I had no idea…"

"I know," Lily said, "that's my fault. I should have said something instead of trying to hide it."

"I never would have done that if I knew, you know that right?" James asked, looking her in the eye for the first time since she got home from work.

"I know…"

"Well, I've kept that 'supposed proposal of friendship' right where you told me to shove it," James said, "I can pull it back out if you'd like."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "That is absolutely disgusting."

"I'll take that as a yes."

---

Things went well between Lily and James for a while after the confrontation. They were as promised, becoming good friends. James would even occasionally invite Lily out with him and the other Marauders. She always politely declined.

Sirius was determined to get her to come out with them. "Lily, flower of my life, come to Hogsmeade with us! Who knows, maybe you'll meet someone!" James hit him over the head with his newspaper and Lily laughed.

"Sirius, constellation of _my_ life, if you want me to go that badly, I'll go. I just don't want to be a bother." She put down her dish towel and turned around to see a disgruntled look on his face. "What is your problem?"

"Sirius is a star, not a constellation," Peter said, not looking up from the crossword puzzle he was trying to solve. "He gets very offended, you know."

Remus snorted at Peter's last remark. "Just come with us, you won't regret it."

Lily sighed. "Alright, I'll go! Just let me go change." All four boys groaned. Simply changing clothes did not exist in girl world.

After a surprisingly short wait, they set off to Hogsmeade. Lily, however, had never gotten her apparition license, so she side-along apparated with Peter. By the time they arrived, however, she had her nails dug so far into his arm that he was wincing in pain.

"I'm sorry, Peter. Let me see it, maybe I fix it."

"No! No, that's ok. It's fine. Just leave it alone, Lily." Peter said, hastily pulling his sleeve back down.

_Well, that was certainly odd._

Lily shrugged off the strange feeling she had when Peter wouldn't let her see his arm. She pushed it aside as insecurity, but deep down she knew that it was something more, she just didn't know what.

As the night went on, Lily forgot about Peter's arm and allowed herself to have a great time. Near the end of the night, when James had his allowed amount of alcohol (wouldn't want to be kicked out of Auror training), Lily went up to get everybody pumpkin juice.

Sirius' bate of maybe meeting someone proved true when she waited for the bartender to get the five glasses pumpkin juice.

"Having a good time?" Lily turned to see how had been speaking. It was a man maybe a year older than her. Lily grinned and nodded.

"I'm Lily," she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. He did so, and introduced himself as Tom. Lily had been taking so long to get back with the drinks that Remus was sent to get her. When he returned without either drinks or Lily, all hell broke lose.

"You mean to tell me, Moony, that she is up there talking to some guy and drinking all of our drinks? I'm going up there. That jacka—"

"Prongs," Remus cut him off, "Lily doesn't belong to you," he said softly. "Don't blow this. It's a good thing you two have."

James sat down, defeated.

Shortly after James arrived home, a disgruntled and sooty Lily tumbled out of the fireplace. "You guys left me!" she said, shaking her hair to get the ash out. "And now look at me."

James sighed and sat down on the couch. "Sorry."

Lily looked at the ground, "Well, I guess I'll go to bed now…"

"Yeah, me too."

Just as James got up, there was a knock at the door. "It's probably Padfoot, I'll get it." He opened the door not to his friend, but his current worst enemy.

"Hello! I'm Tom, I was looking for Lily. Is she here? She left this at the bar." He dangled a small black handbag in front of him, still smiling.

James snatched it out of his hands. "She went to bed," he responded shortly. "I'll tell her you brought it back."

"Thanks a bunch." _Who says thanks a bunch?_ James thought irritably. He started to close the door, but Tom decided he wasn't done yet. "If that isn't the most beautiful cat I've ever seen…" He bent down and began to pet the very fluffy white cat. A low growl emitted from its throat and its eyes flashed angrily. Lily had dubbed the cat Miss Snooty Pants as she liked to pretend people didn't exist.

The cat stared at Tom for a moment before blinking one eye and letting out a long hiss. She then turned around and stalked to the kitchen table, no doubt to bathe herself after having been touched by human hands.

"Well then, have a nice night!" Tom turned and walked down the hall, leaving James alone with a purse and his thoughts.

_First Lily, now my cat…this is war._

_---  
_

Wow, thank you to everyone who reviewed and such. It made me happy. I'm not really pleased with this chapter, the next one, I'm hoping, will turn out better.


	4. New Beginnings

**More New Beginnings**

Despite James' not so subtle disliking of Tom, he had become a regular around the apartment and seemingly a long term part of Lily's life. Because of this, the tension between James and Lily got a little thicker every day that went by.

Sirius and Peter had a bet going to see how long it would take James to snap. Sirius won with eight weeks. James had finally had enough of Tom, and decided it was time to play hard ball.

"I have come home one too many times from a hard day at training to see those two…canoodling on the couch!" James was furious. He punctuated his sentence, much to the amusement of Remus, by pounding his fist on the table like a two year old.

"James," Remus started, "there isn't anything that you can do to stop Lily from having a boyfriend in the apartment. If you had a girlfriend, she wouldn't say anything to you about it."

James stared at his pale friend. "You, Moony, are a genious." He stood suddenly, sending the wooden chair sliding back, scraping against the floor. "That is exactly what I'm going to do."

"I didn't mean…" Remus thought better of trying to stop his friend. If he had an idea, neither hell nor high water could stop him from carrying it out.

"I'm going to show Mr. I'm-so-great-let's-pet-the-cat-and-steal-the-girl who's better." James' eyes glazed over as he began to plot.

'Why don't you just give him half a chance? He's not that bad." Remus tried to reason with James.

"He didn't touch the girl you love with his smarmy hands. He didn't touch your _cat_ with his smarmy hands!"

"You need to let the cat go, James. I'm sure she's cleaned herself thoroughly in the eight weeks that have passed." Then he added quietly, "It's not like you can touch the stupid thing anyway."

"My cat is not stupid! Some times she lets me pet her," James said, defending his beloved cat.

"Yeah, when she's starving."

"Shut up, Remus." Remus held his hands up in defeat and let the subject of the fluffy feline go.

---

"Lily! Are you ready yet?" Tom rapped on her bedroom door and then looked impatiently at his watch. _Women_, he thought angrily. "Come on! We have reservations. You know, at a fancy expensive pay in advance restaurant."

"Oh don't wet yourself. I'm ready to go." Lily opened the door and rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "You sir, are very impatient. And besides, all of the clocks are set five minutes fast to get me and James moving in the morning."

A look of guilt washed over Tom's pale face. He shuffled his feet a little and ran his hand through his light brown hair. "About those clocks…"

"It was you!" Lily stamped her foot and pointed at him. "You made me late for work! And James late for training!"

"It was bothering me. I had to change it, but we need to get going." He looked at his watch again and Lily laughed.

"Yeah, just let me leave James a note." When Lily turned her back, Tom pulled a face and mockingly mouthed "James James James".

Lily turned back around and smiled. "You ready to go?"

---

"Wormtail, is tonight the full moon?" James sat down in a rocking chair in the living room of the place Peter shared with his two cousins. "

"Yes, tonight's the full moon."

A grin spread across James's face. "Good, that gives me more time to find the perfe—"

"Would you just leave Lily alone?" Peter cut him off. "She's going to move out if you drive her crazy like this much longer. Then where do you think she's going to go?"

"Her parent's house." Peter looked skeptically at James. "She would move into her parents house, wouldn't she?" James seemed to be pleading with Peter as though he was the one who could control where Lily would move.

"No you idiot! She'd move in with Tom."

James glared at Peter. "At least he wouldn't be able to pet my cat anymore."

"Are you kidding me with the cat again?"

James didn't respond he just shot his friend a withering look before walking out the door.

Peter shook his head and watched the door shut behind his friend. "Such a shame," he muttered to himself after the latch clicked.

---

"Lily!" James pushed open the kitchen door. "I'm going out tonight. Don't wait up for me." He winked and grabbed his cloak from the rack in the corner. Lily didn't look up. She waved a hand and continued writing furiously on the piece of parchment on the table in front of her.

James looked out the window and saw the light disappearing rapidly. He ran out the door calling a goodbye behind him as the door shut.

Lily stood up and stretched. She glanced at herself in the small mirror over the garbage can. She looked terrible. Her hair was sticking every which way and she had spots of ink all over her face. Her hand ached from all of the writing that she did.

Smiling triumphantly, Lily picked the packet of parchment up off the table and, laughing, danced around the room with it. She danced her way out of the kitchen to find her owl.

---

"Good morning, dearest." Lily peeked out from under her blankets.

"Sirius. What are you doing?" James appeared in the doorway behind his friend.

"I was just waking Sleeping Red. She got mail."

"I always get mail, Sirius." Lily sat up in bed and stretched.

"Ah, but not big mail from graduate schools."

Lily's eyes widened. She jumped out of the bed and launched herself at Sirius. He held the envelope high above his head where she couldn't reach. She jumped and just about had it when James snatched it out of Sirius's hand.

"My days at Flourish and Blotts are numbered boys." Lily took the envelope from James and stared at it.

Suddenly she ripped open the top of the envelope and dumped the contents into her hands. She picked up the folded piece of parchment on top. She nearly tore it unfolding it so fast.

She read the letter and handed it to James and Sirius to read.

"I had no idea that you even wanted to go back to school!" Sirius said slapping her on the back.

"This is great!" James grabbed Lily and gave her a hug. He picked her up and swung her around.

"What's going on here?" Lily looked over James's shoulder at Tom.

"I'm going back to school! I got in!" Lily jumped out of James's arms and ran over to Tom, handing him the letter. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"Yeah…" Tom looked from James to Lily and back to James. "Can we talk?"

Lily's smile faltered a little. "Sure," she nodded and looked at James and Sirius. They smiled in congratulations and left her and Tom alone in her room.

---

"So, do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

"Well, after I didn't get the job at the Ministry that I wanted, I started thinking about other things. I thought maybe I'd give teaching a try. I already have my Potions Certification, so now I just need a teaching certificate." Lily sat down on the bed and smiled at him. "I'm sorry I never mentioned it before, I just didn't want to say anything until it all came through."

"I didn't mean about that. We'll deal with that later." Tom stood in front of her. "What is going on with you and James?"

"What do you mean?" Lily looked confused. "James as in James who is in the other room?"

"James as in James who was picking you up in your bedroom."

Lily started laughing.

"You think I'm joking?"

"Tom! It was nothing. If you can't understand that, you have to leave."

Before she could finish her sentence, her bedroom door opened and closed. She watched Tom walk out of her room and out of her life.

---

Wow, so if that wasn't the hardest chapter I've written, I don't know what is. Sorry about the delay. I've been having some personal issues and I've been working long days. It's been hard to find the time to fit this in. But I finally did. Yay!


	5. Wintery Stuff

**Wintery Stuff**

"Sexual harassment is not to be used as a way to get cooperation from students…" Lily twirled her hair around her index finger and mindlessly doodled on the desk. She felt like she was in History of Magic.

She sighed and sat up straighter in her desk to keep from falling asleep.

"If any student should attempt to sexually harass you, you should immediately report it."

Lily rolled her eyes. She was sexually harassed every day for three and a half years. If she could deal with a hormonal James Potter, she could handle any other person in the world, no matter how unbalanced they happened to be.

She glanced casually at the clock on the wall behind her. "What, ten more minutes?" She turned back around in her seat and noticed the professor looking at her.

"Yes, Miss Evans. Ten more minutes, and if I'm not mistaken, that's just enough time for a little role playing." Lily stood up and snatched the card out of the old man's wrinkly hand. "I will be the student. Miss Evans will be the Teacher who is in this scenario the sexual aggressor."

"Hello Jacob. I read your essay last night." Lily said, trying not to sound robotic.

"Really, Professor? Did you enjoy it?"

Lily sighed and looked down at her card. She tried hard not to laugh as she read out her line. "Of course, I'm always excited when I read your work, if you catch what I'm saying."

"Professor, your profane intentions are not right and shouldn't be used in the class room."

Lily cracked a smile. "But I just can't help myself."

---

James and Remus were sitting on the floor in the living room of the apartment playing exploding snap when Lily ran in the front door. She dropped her bag, picked up her work apron, waved to the boys and ran back out the door.

"She does that a lot lately," James said, putting down his discard.

Remus made a face at the card and chose one from the stack instead. "How's she been since Tom left?"

"Like that." James rearranged his cards and then thought for a second. He placed a card down on the pile of discards and then continued. "She's busy with school and work. She got another job now, you know. I told her that I would cover rent for her while she was in school, but she said no."

"Oh? Where's she working now?"

"That new ice cream place that opened in Diagon Alley. I went there the other day. It's not bad." James laid his cards down and stood up. "Do you need a drink?"

Remus shook his head. "I was thinking of stopping in there some time. It looked pretty decent." Remus made his discard and the stack of cards went up in flames before him. He stamped it out quickly before it could leave a mark on the carpet.

"I'm just glad that Smarmy McSmarmyson is gone." James sat back down. "Go again?"

"Nah. I should probably get home. I promised Mom that I'd wash the dishes for her tonight." Remus gathered the now normal looking cards and put them in the box the belonged in. "Good game, though."

James nodded. "See you around, Moony."

James looked around the empty apartment. On the couch, sprawled out on her back was his cat. "Looks like it's just us now, Love." James sat down next to the cat which emitted a low growl. James smiled down at the fluffy creature next too him. She glared back at him and he started laughing. "One day you _will_ like me."

---

The days started getting shorter and noticeably colder. The leaves on the trees turned bright vibrant reds and oranges before falling to the ground and creating a colorful carpet for everyone to walk on.

They rustled nosily in the wind and crunched under foot. They soon turned brown and began rotting away, a sure sign that winter was nearly there.

Lily woke one morning and breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally winter break.

She walked out of her bedroom and straight to the kitchen. As soon as her feet hit the linoleum floor, she realized why she loved being a witch so much. She pulled the want out of the pocket of her bathroom and pointed it at the floor. She muttered a charm and soon the floor was warm like it was been under the summer sun for hours.

She sat down at the table and looked out the window. The trees were all bare and there was smoke from every chimney that her eyes could see.

"It's going to snow today." Lily snapped out of her trance and looked up to see James half dressed with the carton of orange juice in his hand.

"Is it really?" Lily asked. "Please tell me you're not going to drink out of that."

James smiled and lifted the carton to his lips. Just to spite her, he took a nice long drink from the container. "Oh, get that look off your face. It was the last of it." He tossed it into the garbage can and sat down across from Lily.

She shook her head and took a sip of her hot chocolate. "What are you doing up this early? The sun isn't even all of the way out yet."

"I could ask the same of you."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Just habit, I guess."

James nodded and then cocked his head to the side curiously. "Did you do something to this floor? It's all warm."

Lily nodded. "You didn't answer my question."

"I promised my mom that I would go get the rest of my stuff today. I guess company is coming soon."

"You know," Lily started, "I always was under the impression that you were rich."

James blushed. "Well, I was living in the guest house. There are tons of places in the house that people could stay. She just wants an excuse for me to get my stuff out."

"Oh." Lily finished off her hot chocolate and put the mug in the sink. "Well, I'm not busy if you want some help."

---

"It has to be like, negative twenty out here." Lily said, pulling her cloak tighter around herself.

"Well, maybe if you wore something more substantial…"

"It's wool, James. It's what sheep wear. It is the definition of substantial."

James started laughing. "Oh, well, if it's what the sheep wear, then it must be."

"Good lord, is that where you live?" James looked up to where she was pointing.

"Oh, no, that's my grandparents place. We have our own compound going on here." He pointed to a slightly smaller house, which, to Lily, was still massive. "That's my parents' house. And that one behind it, that's the guest house."

"Your guest house is the size of my mom and dad's house." Lily said. "I honestly can't imagine needing anything bigger unless I had eight or nine kids."

"You want eight or nine kids?" James looked at her like she was crazy.

"Well, no I don't _want_ eight or nine. One or two will do the trick just fine." James shook his head looking relieved. "So, James, tell me again why we couldn't have just flooed here?"

James's wind beaten face turned even redder. "I suppose we could've done that."

"James!" she pushed him playfully. "You just made me walk 3 miles in this frigid weather when we could have flooed?"

"Well, it didn't occur to me. You just can't apparate here," James said defensively, pushing her back.

They walked in silence for a few seconds.

"Did you know that there is an equation to your exaggerations?"

Lily looked at him. "I can't wait to hear this."

"Well," he started, "any number that you give, you have to divide it by 6 to get roughly the real number."

"Where's your proof on this theory?"

"My first bit of evidence. It's not frigid, it's cold. Freezing, f-ing cold, really freaking cold –"

"Ok, ok I get it. What's next?'

"You said that I made you walk three miles. Really, it's only a little more than a quarter of a mile. 3 miles divided by 6 is actually half a mile." James looked smugly down at Lily and she tried not to laugh.

"Any other proof?"

"Yes. You said that you hated me, back in school. That, obviously, was a gross exaggeration."

"Oh?" Lily cocked her head to the side in question. "What makes you so sure of that?"

"Because," James said as he stopped walking, "if you really hated me all that much, would you really let me get away with this?"

Lily was confused. She watched him bend down and scoop up a handful of snow. Her brain was half a second too slow and the snowball hit her square in the shoulder.

She looked down at the snow spattered over her black cloak in surprise. She shook her head and then started walking again. "You just wait," she said, "until you go to sleep tonight."

James rolled his eyes playfully and they began walking toward the house again.


	6. Seeds of Betrayal

**Seeds of Betrayal**

"James, what _is_ this, and why do you have it?" Lily held up a ratty piece of parchment.

"The map!" James tried to snatch it from her hands, but she moved it out of his reach. She turned it over looking closely at it.

"This is a map?" She looked skeptical. She tapped it with her wand and nothing happened. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Give it to me."

Lily tossed him the parchment and, losing interest, pointed her wand at a pile of books and guided them neatly into an empty box.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

"What has gotten into you today?" Lily looked at James like he was crazy. "Are you feeling alright?"

"_Yes_! Now, if you'll shut up I'll tell you." James looked at the parchment, but nothing had changed. He hit it again with his wand. "I told you, I solemnly swear I am up to no good, god damn it." He hit it again, hard enough to put a small hole through it.

Lily raised her eyebrows and muttered, "Yeah, you're definitely feeling alright."

----

After a long day of sorting through all of James's belongings, most of which were half finished essays and wrinkled and torn quidditch posters, Lily was exhausted. As soon as they got home, she lied down on the couch and fell asleep.

That was how Sirius found her. He did a quick lap around the apartment looking for James, and when he couldn't find him, he told himself that he had no choice but to wake Lily.

He stood over the couch thinking. Slowly, a smile took over his face and he reached for his wand. He transfigured a flyer from the pile of mail on the table into a large feather and got to work.

Not more than a second after the feather touched her bare foot, Lily jumped up and screamed.

"Sirius!"

Sirius flicked his wand and the feather turned back into an advertisement for Salsa dancing classes. "What? Did something wake you?"

"Did something wake me?" Lily stared at him in disbelief.

"Do you know where James is?" Lily shook her head no. She had been sleeping when he left. "Oh, well. Maybe he's got a hot date tonight." Sirius winked, turned and walked out the door before Lily could say another word.

_A hot date?_ Lily thought. _What gives him the right to just go out with whatever random floozy he finds?_

----

When James got home that evening, Lily was sitting on the living room floor with a magazine. When the door opened and he walked through, she flipped the glossy pages shut and stood up.

"Where have you been?"

James looked surprised. "I was out with Peter. He asked me to help him pick out a new broom. And then we had dinner. He left early though. I guess he had somewhere to be."

"Peter, huh?" Lily went to her bedroom and shut the door a little harder than needed.

_Why am I so angry about this? He was with Peter. Even if he was with a girl, what gives me the right to be angry about it?_

Lily changed into her favorite night clothes and got into bed.

_What is going on with me?_

----

"Pettigrew." Peter turned sharply when he heard his name, and his hand reached instinctively for his wand.

"Expelliarmus." The wand shot out of his hand and flew across the alley to the man completely shrouded in black. Peter's eyes were wide open to catch a hint of who had been sent to meet him.

"Nervous, Pettigrew, or are you always a jumpy fool?" The man removed his hood and revealed his sandy hair and sharp, handsome features.

"Let's just get this done, Tom."

----

"Lily's been acting strange lately." James said sitting heavily on the couch in Sirius's living room.

"Mmm." Sirius half heartedly nodded his head and went back to reading the paper.

"Peter's been acting strange, also. I went out to dinner with him, and he grabbed his arm like someone was twisting it and ran out of the restaurant without even ordering."

"Maybe they're having an affair." Sirius said, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

"Do you think?" James asked, leaning forward in interest, not catching the sarcasm in his friend's voice.

Sirius glanced up at James confused for a moment. He realized that James thought he was being completely serious and he continued. "Oh yeah, what else could it be?"

James sat back and then slapped his leg. "That explains it! That explains why Lily was so mad at me for hanging out with Peter. She was jealous!"

Sirius had to stop himself from laughing out loud because he was having way too much fun. "Yeah, I mean, you know Peter. He's got some strange nervous habits. He was probably just scared that Lily would have his head if he was there."

James nodded almost sadly. "That's probably exactly right. I wonder why she didn't tell me."

Sirius shrugged his shoulders and hid his huge lopsided smile behind the newspaper.

----

The week leading up to Christmas was very stressful for James. He couldn't decide if he should confront Lily about Peter. He finally decided to subtly hint at his knowing about the two of them.

"I haven't seen Peter a lot lately." James said one morning at breakfast.

"Then go to his house." Lily said, wiping milk from her cereal off her chin. "You know where he lives."

James watched her carefully. She didn't seem to swoon when he was mentioned. In fact, she reacted like she was completely indifferent to Peter.

Things went on this way for a few days before James finally got up the nerve to ask her.

"When were you going to tell me that you and Peter are together?" James asked after cornering her by the bathroom two days before Christmas.

Lily's eyes got wide and for a split second, James thought that he had caught her and all of his proof was right there.

That was until she started laughing.

She laughed so hard that she slid down the wall and sat on the floor with tears streaming out of her eyes.

James could have killed Sirius at that moment.


	7. Christmasy Goodnessish

**Christmasy Goodness-ish**

It was Christmas Eve and while he should have been laughing and having fun with friends, James Potter was sitting on the couch pouting. He was very bitter about the goings on of the day before.

He would get Sirius for leading him to believe that Lily and Peter were together, he just didn't know how he was going to do it yet.

"James!" He snapped back into the real world when he heard his name. "James, where are my Christmas socks?" James groaned.

"I don't know, Lily. When did you wear them last?"

"Maybe I left them at Peter's…" Lily paused and waited for the reaction she knew was coming.

"I made one mistake! Will you ever let it go?"

"You made two mistakes, James." Lily said walking into the living room, not bothering to hide her amused smile. "First, you listened to Sirius. Second, you were too stupid to realize that you listened to Sirius."

James crossed his arms over his chest and slumped further down on the couch. "Like you would've known better," he mumbled.

"We're talking about the boy who tried to get you to shrink the giant squid and keep it in a fish bowl!" Lily said, sitting down next to James on the couch.

He just shook his head. "Truce?"

"Truce."

_Ha! Yeah right._ Lily thought as they shook on the truce. _I still owe you from the snow ball incident!_

----

"Pettigrew." Peter turned toward the speaker and lowered his dark hood. "Ah, not so jumpy, I see."

"Still as cocky, I see." Peter retorted, putting his wand in the pocket of his thick black cloak. He immediately regretted putting his wand away, though, when he saw that Tom's was pointed at his chest.

"Watch it, Pettigrew."

Peter watched as Tom reached his hand into the folds of his own cloak and pulled out a slim package which he tossed at Peter.

Peter missed completely, never having been athletic, and watched as it fell to the snow covered ground. He bent quickly to retrieve it, and despite his best efforts to ignore Tom's laughter, he felt his face go hot and hoped the redness would be well hidden by the already present redness from the wind beating against his face.

Tom turned on his heel, pulled his hood over his blonde hair and disappeared from the alley, leaving Peter with the package and a small note pinned to the top which he hadn't noticed before.

_Place these in place of the others._

What the hell did that mean? He was confused. He knew that he shouldn't open the package outside, but he was already late to dinner.

He peeled back the corner of the Christmas wrapping paper and peeked inside, hoping to get a clue what he was supposed to do.

Socks? How was he supposed to even know whose socks they were? Peter sighed and looked at his watch. He was already ten minutes late for dinner.

He pulled up his hood, walked briskly out onto the open street and then walked as fast as he could the two blocks to the Galloping Meadows apartment complex.

----

"I'll get it!" Sirius flung open the door "Ho, ho, h- Peter? Are you feeling well?"

When Sirius said this, the others glanced over to the door to see a very fidgety and somewhat green Peter standing in the door way, clutching his arm.

"I just tripped, twisted my arm. I'm a little shaken up, is all." Peter assured them with a weak smile.

Lily and Remus looked at each other skeptically. "How do you twist your arm when you trip?" Lily whispered to Remus. He just shook his head.

"I'm going to use the restroom, if you don't mind." Peter made for the bathroom at the back of the apartment, but was stopped by James.

"At least take off your cloak first." Peter jumped aside and kept toward the bathroom throwing, "Oh, no thanks, it's an emergency," over his shoulder as he went.

Praying that they had stopped watching him, he shut the bathroom door, and then slipped into Lily's bedroom.

He was almost certain that Lily was the only person he knew of with a pair of knee high reindeer socks.

He glanced around the room quickly, hoping for a clue about where she would keep them. He opened the dresser one drawer at a time, finally, at the very top, he found socks. He dug through the drawer, and not finding what he was looking for, placed them right at the top so that when she opened the drawer looking for the socks, she would take the tainted pair first.

He shut the drawer quietly, and opened the door. He glanced around the corner. He couldn't see anyone, so he quietly went into the bathroom, flushed the toilet and then walked as casually as he could into the living room.

"So, is everyone having a good night?" He asked, sitting down in the armchair opposite the couch.

----

"Dinner's ready," James said, sticking his head out the kitchen door.

Lily watched as everyone filed into the kitchen and as soon as the door shut after Remus, she got down on the floor next to the tree, plucked a name tag off of a gift for Sirius and one for James. She switched them, smiled at her handy work, and then went into the kitchen.

"Lily, give me the potatoes or are you going to eat them all again this year?" Sirius said, holding out his arm across Remus' plate for the bowl.

"Calm down, Sirius, the house elves wouldn't have let you go potato less and you know it," Lily said, scooping more onto her plate.

"Sirius, come on! Get your arm out of my plate or I'm going to start chewing on it." Remus said, swatting at his friends arm that was still waving wildly waiting for the potatoes.

"Where's the corn? Do you have it over there, Peter?" James asked craning his neck to see around Sirius who was practically laying on the table now.

Peter shook his head and pointed to Remus. "He's got them, I think."

"Remus, pass the corn, please."

Remus smiled and shook his head. "I don't think I will. I'm taking a page out of Lily's book on this one."

"You hate corn. I love potatoes. That's not in my book." Lily said, finally passing the bowl to Sirius.

"Oh, great, now they're cold." Sirius whined over James' response of "stop hoarding the food, you two."

It went on like that for a while, but once everyone had filled his or her plate with food, it quieted down except for the occasional outburst from Peter.

"Sirius! Get your foot out of my pant leg!"

"That was you?" Sirius asked, looking surprised. "I was aiming for Prongs."

James almost chocked on his corn. "Why did you want your foot up my pant let?" James asked cautiously once he stopped coughing.

"Oh, so you'd think it was Lily." Sirius said innocently.

Lily snorted. "Sorry, Black, I don't have big hairy feet, and I'm all the way over here. I think he would've known it wasn't me."

"Ok, enough with the feet," Remus said, turning a little green.

It quieted down for a few more minutes, until Remus jumped out of his seat, his silverware clattering loudly on the plate below.

"It wasn't me." Sirius said, holding his hands up.

"Yes it was, you just pinched me with your toes!" Remus pointed at him accusingly.

"Well, ok, maybe I did do it." Sirius said, bringing his naked foot out from under the table and resting it on Remus' now empty chair.

"Alright, I've lost my appetite," James said, putting his silverware down and wiping his mouth with his napkin.

"Sirius, can you please put that thing away?" Lily asked through her last mouthful of potatoes. "You're ruining this for me." She pointed at her mouth full of mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn.

----

"Ok, wait, before we start, I need to go get something." Lily stood up from the semi circle that form around the small tree in the living room and ran into her room.

She appeared a minute later with her pants tucked into the tops of her favorite reindeer knee highs.

"I thought you couldn't find those?" James said when she sat back down.

"They were right under my nose the whole time."

Everyone started ripping the paper off their presents and shouting thanks to their friends for whatever they found inside boxes and tissue paper.

James reached for his last gift and as he took off the paper, he thought he heard something ticking.

As soon as he took the lid off, there was a puff of foul smelling smoke, and, as the smoke cleared, he couldn't help but think that it seemed almost like what he had planned for Sirius.

He looked into the box and cried out. Staring back at him was the face of Severus Snape. It had been his prank, Sirius had stolen his idea!

James shut the box quickly and tried to think of the counter cure to get his own face back. But then he remembered that he couldn't. It was a polyjuice mist of sorts; he would simply have to wait for it to wear off.

He glanced over at Sirius, expecting to see another Snape sitting there, but instead, he saw Lily whispering something through her laughter, and Sirius staring at James trying hard not to laugh. The other two had already given in to their fits of laughter and were hopelessly laughing on the floor.

"So, James, do you remember when I said that I'd get you back?" Lily asked, giggling a little.

James' eyes widened.

"Well, here it is. Merry Christmas. " Lily burst out laughing and James just stared.

_I could kill her for this, but she looks so cute in those stupid socks that she loves._ He thought. He shook his head and then opened the box again. He looked into the mirror at the bottom and saw that he was still very much Severus Snape.

_Well,_ he thought, _might as well have fun with it._

The rest of the evening was spent watching James do impressions of Snape, even after his own appearance had come back.

----

So, I thought I posted the chapter from last night like, last Friday and apparently I didn't, so yeah, this will probably be the only time that I'll ever be able to update back to back, sadly. But yay for Robyn. Her story compelled me to get off my lazy bottom and finish this chapter because I was like what? There isn't anymore? And then I thought oh no, what if that's how people who read my stuff feel? And then I typed like the wind. It was a beautiful thing. Yeah, It's been a long day so far, if you couldn't tell. My apologies for my on going rambling, I know it's unbecoming.


	8. Imagine My Surprise

**Imagine My Surprise**

"Imagine my surprise," a cold voice started, "when the guest of honor neglected to show up to dinner!"

Peter flinched at his masters words knowing that there would be punishment for his failure. How was he supposed to know that the socks were a port key? How was he supposed to know he should have activated them to whisk Lily away to the Master's as soon as she made contact with them?

He kept his mouth shut, though, and looked at the cold, damp ground. The anger growing inside him at Tom for neglecting to tell him that vital information was slowly taking the place of the fear instilled in him from simply being in the presence of Voldemort.

Inside, Peter was glad that the socks had failed. He had gotten a wonderful gift from Lily the night before, and while he knew that it was wrong to base his well wishes for her on that, he did it anyway.

"It was all set up! Everything was ready. All you had to do was replace the real pair with the pair that was given to you." Voldemort was angry and Peter could tell. He knew that he was going to pay for this one.

Wait. Did he say everything was ready? The rage that had been building disappeared in a snap. It had been his fault. He couldn't find the original pair of socks! He was the one who ruined the plan after all.

The socks were still in the drawer; maybe she would find them and unthinkingly put them on. There was still hope for the plan's success, but there was no avoiding punishment for the delay.

----

"_We will we will rock you."_

Lily opened one of her eyes and peeked out of her cocoon of blankets at the clock. It was seven in the morning.

She groaned and sat up. She didn't care if it was Christmas morning or not. Seven was too early to be up.

Seven was certainly too early to hear James Potter singing loudly.

She climbed out of bed and wrapped her blankets around herself. She shuffled into the hallway and started banging on the bathroom door.

"Potter! What are you _doing_?"

The door swung open and James stood in the doorway, dramatically flexing his biceps like a body builder.

"I'm getting pumped up."

Lily raised an eyebrow and observed her roommate.

He had his old Gryffindor quidditch robes on and black streaks under his eyes like a football player.

"Are you kidding me?" Lily shook her head and turned to leave.

'Nope! I put some old robes on your dresser. They should fit you. Hurry up and get dressed. We don't want to be late!

Lily stopped dead in the hall. She slowly turned to face James. "Late for what, exactly?"

"Quidditch."

"I've never played quidditch!" Lily said, throwing up her arms causing her blankets to fall to the ground.

"That's why you'll be on mine and Sirius' team. Hurry up, go get dressed."

Was he crazy, Quidditch on Christmas morning? Lily was sure that she was dreaming, but as she climbed back into bed something red on her dresser caught her eye.

She groaned. This was not going to be a good day.

----

Lily, clad in James' fourth year quidditch robes and carrying an old broom, walked between James and Sirius up the long snow covered driveway to the Potter's house.

"I can't believe you're making me do this!" Lily said, looking down at herself. The robes fit her a little too snugly around the chest for her liking, and the arms were way to long for her. She couldn't wait until she could change out of them.

"It's not about making a fashion statement," James began, "it's about kicking my uncle and his family's ass in quidditch."

"Don't throw me the ball, I can't catch."

"Don't worry, love, you will." Sirius winked when he said that, making Lily suddenly very afraid.

As they grew closer to the backyard, Lily saw that there were already people gathered around. A man that she assumed to be James' father was wearing the same scarlet robes as she, James and Sirius.

Across the lawn from him, there were four people Lily couldn't quite make out. She assumed that it was James' uncle and his family. They were wearing golden robes and had something on their heads that looked suspiciously like a crown.

A woman standing in the middle of the field shouted out to them. "Just in time. Hurry along now. I need to go baste the turkey or you'll have a ruined Christmas dinner."

To this, James' father replied. "As long as I'm wearing that crown, I don't care if we even have dinner."

The woman shook her head.

The three of them approached Mr. Potter who already hovering in the air. He looked at the three of them. "You guys ready to bring home to the goods?"

James and Sirius nodded and got on their brooms. Lily, who hadn't touched a broom since her fifth year of school, climbed on carefully and about fell off when they started to chant "Who's the man? We're the man," repeatedly, each time louder than the last until they were shouting as loud as they could.

James nodded at Lily to join in. She shrugged her shoulders, figured she had nothing to lose and as loud as joined in. It felt good, she discovered, to yell for no reason at all. It was almost invigorating.

Before she knew it, Lily was flying through the freezing air, her hair streaming behind her and her eyes stinging from the wind.

"What am I supposed to do?" She yelled to James, her words almost lost in the wind.

"It doesn't matter as long as we're wearing those crowns at the end of the game." Before she had a chance to ask what he meant, there was a huge red ball flying right to her face.

Just before it made contact with her nose, she caught it and looked around frantically. Two of James' cousin's were flying toward her, fast. She had to get rid of the ball or they were going to run into her.

"Lily!" She spun around and chucked the ball as hard as she could. Her aim was terrible. Sirius started chasing after the ball that had flown past his head, but then stopped and watched as it soared cleanly through the hoop.

"You did it! You scored a goal!" Lily turned to see James was hitting her on the back by way of congratulations.

"I know! Wow that was so amazing!" She felt like her face could crack open because of the huge smile that took it over.

Lily didn't make anymore goals, but she did make a few attempts. Even if she didn't do as well as everyone else, she still had a great time.

As they walked into the house sporting the coveted golden crowns, the symbol of victory, she turned to James and couldn't help but smile again.

Despite the freezing cold, he was covered in sweat. His hair, which on a good day stuck out in several places, was windblown and messier than usual. He too had a huge smile on his face.

"This could be the best Christmas I've ever had." Lily said, following him into the dinning room where the table was over flowing with food.

"Yeah?" James asked, pulling out a chair for her to sit. "I'm glad to hear that." He sat down next to her and leaned over and said so only she could hear, "don't eat all the potatoes tonight."

She laughed. "I would never,"

James rolled his eyes and handed her the bowl before reaching for the plate of turkey. Even though he had just had the exact meal the night before with his friends, it seemed to taste even better in the presence of family.

Lily smiled into her plate full of mashed potatoes and corn. _James is being so nice to me today!_ _Surely it isn't just because his parents are around. _The more she thought about it, the more she realized that he had been that nice to her for a long time; she just failed to notice it.

The more she thought about it, the more she remembered coming home from late nights at work to find James sitting in the kitchen waiting for her to make sure she got home alright. She realized that she hadn't pulled out a chair or opened a door for herself in a month.

His family and their Christmas tradition obviously meant a lot to him. He didn't have to include her in it, but he did. He had almost seemed hurt when she wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea. As she got more into it he started to seem happier. He was almost as excited as she was when she made the goal in the game. She was getting the feeling that it wasn't because it meant they were winning, but because she was enjoying herself doing something that he loved.

What was going on with him?

And why couldn't she stop smiling when he looked at her?

Lily didn't want to think about it anymore. She wanted to eat her potatoes and laugh with James and his family while wearing a cheap plastic crown with chipped gold paint wearing James' old quidditch robes that didn't fit her right.

----

I'm all excited. I talked to a lot of my friends from home today. Yay! So I celebrated by writing another chapter. Yay! Haha.


	9. Lily, You're a Witch

**Lily, You're a Witch...**

_Why does she keep looking at me?_

James glanced at Lily and sure enough she was looking back at him. For a moment he worried that he had something on his face. It must have shown because Lily snorted with laughter and turned back to her plate.

Her laughter drew attention to the two of them, much to James' dismay. Lily's amusement quickly turned into embarrassment.

"So, how long have you two been together?" That was his aunt. Lily's eyes went wide and she couldn't help but turn red.

"Oh, no. We're not…" she trailed off and looked at James for help.

"Together." James finished for her. "We're not. Definitely. I mean, not that you're horribly disgusting or anything," he added as an afterthought.

This caused Sirius to nearly choke on his butterbeer. "Yeah, Lily, I've never thought you were disgusting. Except that time when you were practically eating that guy's fa…"

"Sirius!" Lily scolded. "Enough." She laughed nervously. When had this turned into a Lily bashing session?

"Anyway," James said in a pathetic attempt to change the subject.

His parents looked on, amused, as the two of them carefully avoided each other for the rest of the afternoon.

----

"I'm going to be late!" Lily shouted as she sprinted to her bedroom to grab a towel. She slid into the bathroom and pulled the door shut behind her with a sharp click. No more than twenty seconds later, James could hear the water pouring from the shower head and the curtain being closed.

After possibly the quickest shower of her life, Lily was rushing back to her bedroom to get ready to go see her family. In no time at all, she was standing in the living room holding an outfit in each hand.

"Which one?"

James looked up from the newspaper and was startled to find Lily wearing little more than dress slip and a towel wrapped around her hair. She tapped her foot impatiently; she had no time to be embarrassed by the current situation.

"Which one, James? Black, or blue?" He pulled his eyes away from her and finally looked at the outfits that she was frantically waving around.

Black dress or blue skirt and white blouse? Which one would be the right answer? He had no idea. He took a deep breath and chose.

"The black one," he said, trying to sound like he was certain of his discision. Lily held it up to herself and looked down at it.

"Don't you think it's a little, I don't know, risqué, for a family Christmas party?"

_Wrong one, _James thought to himself. He nodded. "Then go with the blue."

"But the blue is so matronly." Lily said, now holding that against her. "Petunia will probably be wearing something like this, so I think I'll wear it so that I don't stand out, you know?"

_No,_ James thought, _I don't know._ Why on earth was she asking his opinion when she didn't even take it? He shook his head and went back to the paper while she ran back to her room to change into the chosen outfit.

When she emerged a few minutes later, James wasn't at all surprised to see that she was wearing neither the blue nor the black outfit, but rather a tan one. While her make up was done, her hair was still wet and hanging limply around her face.

"What am I going to do?" She pushed a chunk of it back from her face, but it just fell down again. "I don't have time to let it dry!"

"Lily," James said calmly, "you're a witch. Use your wand." Lily stared at him confused for a second before her eyes widened with understanding.

"Thanks, James. Don't know what I'd do without you." she called over her shoulder, running back to her room to retrieve her wand. This time when she came out, her hair was dry and half pulled up.

"I think I'm ready," she said before biding James goodbye and disappearing with a small pop.

James saw her purse sitting on the back of the chair and began counting in his head. _One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand--_. He was disrupted by another pop and a blur of red hair running past him.

_Right on time._

"Sorry, I forgot my purse. I'm leaving for real this time."

Lily was gone for several hours, leaving James with nothing to do but think back over the day.

He thought about the morning and how much fun Lily seemed to have with him and his family.

_And, she looked really good in those quidditch robes,_ he thought with a grin.

She really seemed to let loose during the quidditch match. It was a side of her that he had hardly ever seen before. She yelled and screamed like the best of them, and, when she made that one goal, she was ecstatic.

All through dinner she kept laughing at everything he said, like she suddenly found him to be the funniest guy on earth. He was sure it wasn't just a show because her eyes were lit up more than they usually were.

_Must've been the Christmas spirit_, he thought. But he wasn't completely convinced.

The way that she responded to the questions his family flung at them about their relationship told him that it was more than that. She had turned red and stuttered. He hadn't heard her stutter since fourth year when he made her believe that her wand had snapped in half. Of course, because he never would have really snapped her wand, it was a fake.

He leaned back into the warmth and comfort of the couch. He didn't know what was going on with Lily, but he would think about it tomorrow.

It was Christmas, after all. And what a Christmas it had been.

----

Argh. This chapter is crap. I'm not going to lie to you haha. It ended up not working out like it was supposed to because I changed the plan a little. So, bear with me, the next chapter will definitely have more of the other small plot stuff going on, so it won't be this short, either.

Yeah, I've also been working on another story called Peachy, which I started in hopes of curing my writers block for a history paper haha. So, that's another reason why this chapter wasn't exactly speedy.

Well, I hope that you liked it. It does have some important stuff so that's always good, right? Right.


	10. A Traitor in the Ranks

**A Traitor in the Ranks**

The Christmas holidays quickly passed and so did the remainder of the winter. Spring approached rapidly brining with it beautiful flowers, warmer temperatures, and fresh green leaves on all of the trees. The grass sprang back to life after months hidden under piles of leaves left from the fall and huge piles of snow that had accumulated over the winter.

Lily and James, however, were both so busy that they had little time to notice, let alone appreciate the change of seasons.

Lily was back in school and still working both of her jobs, while James was entering the last stint of his Auror training. This part was particularly grueling. He was constantly working with a drill team to improve his reflexes to help him avoid disarming and stunning spells.

With both of them working long hours, they had pushed everything about Christmas to the back of their minds. That wasn't the only thing they forgot about though. The apartment had fallen into disarray because both occupants were too tired and too stressed to clean and keep up on the house keeping.

The dishes had stacked up in the sink and the mail on the kitchen table. Lily and James hardly even saw each other anymore.

It was a Monday night and James was free to go home early from training. He walked into the apartment and looked around. It was like he hadn't even seen it before. There was a half folded basket of laundry on the couch and there were crumpled up pieces of parchment littering the mantle and the end tables. He sighed and told himself that he would definitely clean up a little after he rested for a while.

He pushed the laundry basket to the floor where it made a soft thumping noise. He laid down and stretched out on the couch with his head on the armrest and his feet hanging over the edge. A few hours later, he woke up when he heard the lock on the front door clicking open.

He sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes just in time to see Lily letting a bag laden with books slide from her shoulder to the ground as she shut the door. She had her eyes closed as she leaned back against the door. When she opened them, she was surprised to see James watching her.

"Fancy meeting you here," she said with a small, tired smile. Her eyes had large black circles under them. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail and her clothes were wrinkled.

James didn't look much better. He was covered in cuts and bruises. There was a deep purple bruise about the size of a golf ball on his arm. It looked almost black compared to his skin that was more pale than usual because he hadn't been outside in so long.

"You look lovely today." He said, and she rolled her eyes before going to sit in the overstuffed chair next to the couch.

"Of course," she said, "because everyone finds the bride of Frankenstein attractive."

James lay back down on the couch. "To each his own."

Lily didn't respond, she just looked around the edge of the chair and, upon seeing her bag resting by the door, let out a groan.

"We need to do something fun," James said decidedly. "We need to just forget about school and work and training for a while."

Lily just waved her arm dismissively. "I've got too much to do."

"So what? You can afford to be a little late for one assignment." James said, sitting up again. "We're going out tonight."

"It's midnight." Lily stated simply, not making any move to get up, where as James was already pocketing his wand and heading to open the door.

"All the better, then." Lily looked at him appraisingly. He was completely serious.

"I don't know…"

"Yes you do. Come on. Do you remember that time in seventh year when I wanted to get you to go to the lake with me and Sirius?"

"Yes," Lily said. She did remember that night quite well.

"And wasn't that fun?" James asked, nodded his head, trying to coach her.

"No! You got me into so much trouble that night." She stood up and stretched. "I was in detention for a week because of you two block heads."

James just laughed. "Yeah, but you still had fun before Snape turned us in."

Lily paused for a second thinking this over. "Promise we won't stay out too late?"

"It's midnight." James said just as simply as she had a moment before.

----

"It's kind of cold out for April, don't you think?" Lily asked as she pulled her cloak around her tighter and shivered a bit in the chilly air.

James didn't answer her. "James. I asked you a quest—"

"Shhh!" James hissed. Lily was getting a little irritated. It's not like she was being loud.

"Wha—" James clamped a hand firmly over her mouth and gave her a look that clearly said that he was being serious.

He removed his hand, and to his great relief, Lily stayed quiet. He bent down and began fiddling with his shoe laces. Lily couldn't help but notice that they were already double knotted. In all the years she'd know James Potter, he had never untied his shoes to take them off or put them on. She was sure that something was up.

Before Lily could ask him what he thought he was doing, he was pushing her into a dark, shadowy doorway.

_What is going on_, Lily thought. She couldn't think of any reason that she needed to be shoved into a doorway in the middle of the night. She was just about to leave the shadowy cover of the doorway when James' hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

All she could see were his eyes, which were gleaming oddly in the darkness. Not two seconds later, two people dressed entirely in black rounded the corner of the nearby alley way.

"Stop whining, Pettigrew. You knew that it was going to happen eventually," the taller figure said. Lily had to keep from letting out a surprised gasp.

"Why does everyone say that? It's like you all thought I was incompetent from 'go'." Peter snapped angrily at the taller man. He had to speed up just to keep pace with him. He pulled his hood down and revealed his features.

Whatever thoughts that James was having about cursing who he assumed to be Peter's cousin suddenly disappeared with a sharp exhaling of breath. There was no mistaking him. His features stood out under the bright light of the street lamp. His sandy hair was sticking up a bit in the back from the hood that had previously shielding his face from the world's eyes. His blue eyes flicked to the doorway for a second, his ears prickled with an unknown stimulus.

Lily looked from James to Peter, and then to the man who had not yet noticed his companion was missing. He kept his swift pace, and his footsteps were fading off into the eerily quiet night, each fall off his foot harder to detect than the one before it.

James' eyes were wide with panic, and Lily was sure hers were too once she saw what he was staring at. Clutched in Peter's pale hand was a mask. She couldn't see all of it, but she could see enough of the white contours that mimicked that of a skull to know what it was. It was a Death Eater mask.

She felt herself flinch as he started to approach the doorway, the other man still unaware -or uncaring- that Peter had strayed from him, leaving their conversation unfinished. As he grew closer, she felt James' hand close around her own and squeeze. His hand was cold and clammy.

_Come on,_ Lily thought angrily as she fished around in her pocket for her wand. She almost swore when she couldn't find it. Then another thought occurred to her. The door! Maybe the door was unlocked.

She was too busy frantically feeling the door behind her to notice that Peter had backed off and James had relaxed slightly beside her. She found the knob and wiggled it a little. It was locked!

Peter heard the sound and spun immediately back to the doorway. He strode with determination and muttered "Lumos", lighting the end of his wand.

James blinked in the light waiting for his eyes to adjust. Before him, was Peter Pettigrew staring back at him in a trance of bewilderment. James didn't see one of his best friends, though. He saw a rat, a Traitor.

Just as he was about to open his mouth, Peter flicked his hood back up, pointed his wand and muttered something that James couldn't quite make out. There was a flash of light, and then another.

Soon, the fog of the moment cleared and he looked around him.

"James," Lily whispered. He jumped. Where had she come from? "What are we doing in a doorway?"

"I don't know." He whispered back. He ventured out onto the sidewalk, but all he saw were two men walking briskly into the night. "Strange…" he muttered to himself. He turned and found Lily standing beside him, watching the men retreat.

"It's late…we should probably get home."

James nodded his head. He couldn't shake the feeling that something important had just happened, and he was angry that he couldn't remember it. Last thing he remembered, he had badgered Lily into going out that night.

_Maybe,_ he thought, _I've just had too much to drink._ He tried to convince himself that he had in fact become intoxicated over the night, but he didn't feel drunk at all.

----

Well, that was certainly better than the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed it!


	11. Late Library Nights

Her head didn't hurt, she wasn't sick to her stomach, and she could remember almost everything about the night. She wasn't drunk. Someone had obviously preformed a memory charm on them when they were in that doorway, for some reason.

Why where they in the doorway to begin with? James wanted her to go out with him because they were running ragged from school and work, and she knew she had work to do, but left anyway. She knew it was cold outside, and then she knew that she was confused.

She packed up her bag and stood up. She had the day off from both of her jobs, and she was finally done with class, so she had plenty of time to get caught up on her work, but she didn't feel like she would be all that productive today. She decided to go home, instead of the library. She didn't feel safe not knowing who was out there the night before, and why she had a memory charm performed on her, if that's even what it was.

James was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee when she got home. He barely looked up when she sat down at the table. He looked like he hadn't slept all night, and he had a fresh bruise on his face from training.

"Ouch. That looks like it hurts." She gestured toward his black eye, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" She asked, concerned.

"No…Did you?" He finally looked up and she could see that in addition to the bruise around his eye, he had a large cut across his jaw.

She shook her head. "Do you want me to do something about your cut?"

"No, it's fine. Leave it as a reminder for why I shouldn't go to training sleep deprived and distracted."

"Well, do you have anything else tonight?" She asked, looking around the kitchen. "I'm off work, so I am going to clean up around here, I think, if you want to get some rest."

"Don't worry about it. I'll help you out first." He sighed and stood up. "I'll wash if you want to dry?"

Lily noticed all of the dried on food on the plates and happily took her station as the dryer. "If you're sure that you're up to week old food." She said with a smile.

"Don't let my beaten face fool you, I'm practically invincible." He said, rolling up his sleeves and trying to look menacingly at the stacks of dirty dishes.

Lily couldn't help but laugh. Even though she wanted to bring up the night before, she didn't want to ruin the most relaxing moment either of them had had in a month, even if it was doing mundane housework.

Later that evening, Lily was curled up on the couch with her "Joy of Teaching" textbook when the cat sat down on her lap. "Are you hungry? Are you going to eat me?" She asked in a sweet voice. The cat just looked at her, and lay down, digging her claws into Lily's legs through the blanket she had on.

"Are you kidding me?" James asked, looking up from his newspaper.

"Hmm?" Lily's replied distractedly as she tried to pet the cat and flip the pages in her book.

"My cat likes you better than she likes me." At that, the cat turned her sharp green eyes at James and hissed a little before turning back to Lily and beginning to purr as she allowed her to scratch behind her white ears.

Lily laughed. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, she still has her claws digging into my legs, and it really hurts."

"Good. I hope it bleeds." James said, opening his newspaper back up, and pretending to ignore Lily and his cat, but she was sure she saw a smile before he disappeared behind a week old _Daily Prophet_.

---

Lily must have fallen asleep on the couch because she woke up to James swearing and nursing a fresh scratch on his arm where the cat got him for trying to pick her up.

"Hey, you need to get to bed because it's late." He said when he saw that she was awake again.

"Oh. How long have I been sleeping?" she asked, yawning and stretching.

"A little while. Sirius stopped by a while ago, but I'll tell you about it in the morning." He held out his hand to help her off the couch.

Lily was too tired to protest much, and stumbled to her room clumsily before collapsing on her bed, fully clothed, and sleeping until her alarm woke her the next day.

When she went out into the kitchen, James was already awake and dressed. He looked haggard, like he hadn't slept again.

"Hey, how'd you sleep?" He asked when she saw her.

"Um, I don't remember, so I guess that's a good thing. How about you. Did you sleep?" She was already worried about him, but when he said that he hadn't slept any because of something that Sirius had told him, she knew that she had to find some way to help him.

"Hey, lets take the day off today. I'll call off work, you still have a few days you can miss of training, right?" She looked hopeful, but he shook his head no.

"Lily, come on. I don't need sleep. I used to sleep less than this in school."

She wasn't convinced, though. "Yeah, well in school all you did was sit on your ass, or play quiditch. Now what do you do? You get beat up on all day, and work all night. You have to get rest, or you're going to get hurt."

"Tonight, when you get home from work, we'll talk about this. Have a good day, alright?" He said before he left the apartment.

"Yeah, it'll be great; I'll worry about you all day." She mumbled as she opened the empty refrigerator, looking for something to eat.

True to her word, Lily was preoccupied all day. She failed a quiz in her Teaching Young Witches class, and she forgot to write down her assignment in Measuring Achievement. By the time she got home from work at 10:30 that night, she was so worried sick that when she saw James sleeping on the couch, she could feel the relief flood through her. She tried to be as quiet as she could when she shut the front door, not wanting to wake him up.

She went into her room and found a note on her mirror. "Lily, I tried to wait up for you, but I was too tired. Hope you had a better day than I did. Talk in the morning." She crumpled up the note and quietly got ready for bed.

When she got up the next morning, he was still sleeping on the couch, where she had found him the night before. She briefly wondered what it was that he and Sirius had talked about that night. It was obviously important because he kept brining it up. She would make sure that she found out after work.

She woke him up so he wouldn't be late for training, but he mumbled something about taking the day off. She laughed and started putting on her coat to leave.

"What are you doing? We're taking a mental health day." He said, stretching out on the couch. "Take off your coat and shoes and get back here."

"James, I have to work and I can't miss class today. We are going into the field."

"Come on. Stay home with me." He pouted a little, and he could tell that she was about to give in because, while she wasn't taking off her coat, she wasn't buttoning it either.

"Will you tell me what you and Sirius talked about?"

"Promise."

"Alright, it's a deal."

She took off her coat and sat down on the chair.

"You have to sit over here for me to tell you." She looked skeptical, but moved over to sit next to him on the couch.

"Alright, now what is?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes! Tell me," she said, exasperated.

He smiled widely before he leaned over and kissed her.

She was silent for a moment and then she looked at him and said, "You and Sirius talked about kissing each other?"

"No, silly. We talked about kissing you."

"I don't think I want to kiss Sirius. I know where his mouth has been."

"What about kissing me?"

"Well, I supposed it wouldn't hurt to try again, just to make sure I'm ok with it."

- - - - -

Lily tried to concentrate on her homework, since she skipped class that day, but between her and James, and the strange feeling she has had about the night they went out, she could hardly write a word of her research paper.

She couldn't help but think that she probably shouldn't be outside alone when she ran into her ex boyfriend, Tom.

"Lily. How are you?" He asked politely.

She smiled, "I'm very well. How are you? I haven't seen you in a while."

"I am doing ok. Let's go somewhere and talk. We should really catch up."

"Well, it's kind of late. What if we get together tomorrow afternoon? I have an hour between class and work. We'll grab something to eat."

"No, I think you're coming with me now." He hissed, grabbing her arm and disaparating with her, before she had a chance to react.

---

James looked at the clock on the wall. It was one thirty in the morning. Lily had said she would be back by midnight, and the library closed at one, so she should have been home by then. He couldn't decide if he should go look for her, although he didn't know where he would look since the library was closed, or if he should just go to bed. He decided that he wouldn't sleep anyway, so he grabbed his wand on the way out the door.

---

Wow, so it has been a long, long time since I have even thought about this story, let alone written anything for it. I guess we'll see how long I can keep it up haha.


	12. Basement Rescues

The feeling of complete helplessness and confusion that James had tried so hard to forget like he had the happenings of the night in the doorway came back to him as he looked at the dark windows of the library. It was obviously closed, so Lily was not there. But where was she?

Just like he had felt like something was missing the night that he and Lily both had the inexplicable feeling of forgetting that you only get after an inexperienced memory charm, he felt like he was over looking some crucial detail that would tell him where Lily was, and why.

He was torn between going home and waiting for her, and giving in to the feeling that something just wasn't right when he first noticed the man that was walking his direction. James had a strange feeling that he had seen that man somewhere before. He was wearing a cloak, not unlike his own, but his large, black hood was up, hiding his eyes from view.

James knew as soon as the man spoke, even before he lowered his hood and relieved his pale face in the street lamps, that it was Tom, Lily's ex-boyfriend.

James nodded, and then continued walking, but stopped when Tom spoke to him. "I ran into Lily this evening."

James turned and eyed him suspiciously. "Oh yeah, when was that?"

"A little earlier. She's over at my place right now. I'm having a little get together, you should come by. I'm sure she'd be excited to see you there."

He knew better than to let it get to him, because he had a feeling that Lily was in trouble and that Tom would in fact lead him to her, but he was certain that it would only work out in his favor if he did it on his own terms.

"No, I don't think so. I've got other things to do." He declined, and did not try to hide his anger.

Tom took the bate, just as James had hoped. He asked one more time, and when declined, he moved for his wand. James beat him to it, though, and stunned him quickly, taking his wand and quickly grabbing his arm, before disappearing with a pop to Sirius' apartment.

James knocked once, and then tried the door knob. It was unlocked, so he didn't even wait for an answer, he swung open the door and shoved the stunned man in before him, not wanting anyone to see.

"Sirius!" He called, looking around the room. He didn't take his wand away from Tom, though, and when he began to wake, he muttered under his breath and ropes shot out of his wand, promptly tying Tom to a chair.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sirius came out of his room to see Tom tied to a chair.

"We have a problem. Hold on." He put a deafening charm on Tom, and then turned back to Sirius, his wand still pointed at Tom.

"I'll say we have a problem. What the hell did you do?" Sirius looked from Tom, who was struggling uselessly against the ropes that held him, to James who was panicked and shaky.

"He has Lily. She never came home. He knows where she is, and he was going to try and take me there, but I was too fast for him." He spit out the words so fast, Sirius could hardly understand him.

"So you brought him to me. Thank you for that."

"He can take us to her. I don't know where she is, I don't know what they are doing to her, and I don't know how many of them there are."

"Them?" Sirius asked.

"Death Eaters. Really Sirius, get your head in the game here."

"Oh, sorry, I was only sleeping soundly a minute ago, before my maniac of a kidnapping best friend showed up!"

James shot him a dirty look.

"Ok, ok," Sirius conceded. "How do you know there are more than one of them there?"

"He said he was having a get together with all of his friends." He can take us to her, I know it. We have to find out who is there and then I'm taking him to Dumbledore."

"Ok. Well, I guess we better get to work."

---

James and Sirius stood outside a rundown house under the old invisibility cloak they used to use to cause trouble.

"Well, I guess we better do it. No use waiting, who knows what is happening in there." Sirius said, stepping forward, half dragging the cloak off of James.

After shooting his friend a dirty look, he said "snugglepuff" and waited for something to happen. Just as he was about to go back and strangle Tom for lying about the secret word, the run down house suddenly jumped to the side, allowing room for another house to stand next to it.

"I can't decide if it's good or bad that that house is so big." Sirius said, as they walked up the front steps.

"Yeah well, you better hope that Snape has forgiven you for what you did to him because if he does answer this door, he could have us killed faster than you can say anything." James said, reaching for the huge serpant door knocker.

When prompted for the password, he offered up "Puffsnuggle", and waited for all of the bolts to stop clinking and watched as the door swung open to the not so pleasant face of Severus Snape, just as Tom had said.

"Get in here and be quiet. Don't move a finger until I come back." Snape shoved them both into a small closet, snapped the door shut and then swiftly walked away.

"Should we trust him?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Yes. Dumbledore said that he would cooperate with us. And besides, he's only been in love with Lily for how long now." James whispered back. He was silenced, though, by swift footsteps coming back toward the closet.

"You have fifteen minute until dinner starts. After dinner, someone will be down looking for her. Down the stairs, second room to the left. Don't use the untying charm, it will kill her. Wait twenty minutes and go."

"Thank you, Severus," James said kindly.

"I'm not doing this for you two. I'm doing it for Lily." He said, and snapped the door shut, leaving them to wait for twenty minutes in the dark closet, not daring to even breath heavy.

James lost track of the time, and he began to panic. Did they wait too long? How long had they been waiting to begin with? He was just about to burst out of the closet when there was a single, sharp knock on the door because they could hear Snapes footsteps retreating.

The sudden noise was calming to James, but it startled Sirius. He jumped, and hit his head off a shelf with a bang. They stayed silent for a second, hoping that no one had heard, but they could hear the footsteps. James closed his eyes, hoping that it was Snape that would open the door so that he would at least live to get the chance to save Lily.

"What do you want me to do? Go down stairs and get her myself? Can't you two fools manage anything?" It was obvious that Snape was angry as he called out, "Don't worry, my Umbrella slipped off the hook." He closed the door with a snap, but not before giving James and Sirius another dirty look.

James and Sirius didn't say a word as they tried to creep as quietly, and quickly as they could to the basement stairs. They took the stairs slowly, and on the least worn parts to keep the creaking quiet. They could hear the death eaters in the dinning room carrying on, so they knew they were safe for the moment. They followed Snape's directions exactly, and when Lily saw them turn the corner, her eyes lit up and she held up her roped hands to tell them to untie her quickly.

"Hang on, Lily. We can't cut them, or use the untying charm. Let me think." James was cursing himself for not thinking about it while he was in the closet with Sirius.

Sirius pushed him out of the way, though, and muttered something under his breath. "Come on, we don't have long because they'll be coming for you in a few minutes."

"Thank you!" Lily threw her arms around Sirius, and then James before they crept slowly up the stairs, listening for any noise from the dinning room. Satisfied that there was still pleanty of activity in the room, they walked quickly to the front door, but as soon as they reached it, they could hear the knocker.

"Quick, get in the closet. Snape will open the door. We'll be fine." James said, opening the door.

"I don't think so, Prongs. We better open the door and run for it." Sirius said, looking over his shoulder.

They could see the shadow of a large man coming around the corner.

"I like his idea," Lily said, unlocking the door.

Together, the three of them ducked their heads and ran full speed out the front door, practically knocking the woman on the other side over. They could hear the man and the woman shouting, as they turned the corner and continued running.

---

Hmm…and the plot thickens. I'm really glad that so many people are enjoying the story... Happy Holidays, everyone.


	13. Confusion

**Confusion **

"I must say, you work well under pressure." Sirius flopped down on the couch, ignoring the scathing looks James sent his way. "I was really impressed."

"Sirius. That's enough." Lily said, tossing an old magazine at him. "You were both great. You saved my life."

James shrugged and sat in the chair opposite the couch.

"You're such a baby." Sirius rolled his eyes and sat up so Lily could sit down. "I was just giving you a hard time."

"Well forgive me if I forgot to laugh at your lame jokes." James stomped to his room and slammed the door behind him.

Sirius didn't dare look at Lily as she stood up to leave.

"Just cool it on the jokes for a while, you know?" Sirius nodded and Lily knocked on James' bedroom door.

"What? Come to see if my diaper needs changing?" He swung the door open before Lily could answer. "Oh. Sorry."

She shrugged. "He's just being himself. You can't hold it against him."

"I just felt so stupid and useless, you know?"

"You were great. And besides, there's a reason that doctors don't treat family." James looked at her curiously. "Or, you know, anyone they know." Her face turned red and she cleared her throat. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah." He trailed off. "I'm putting my laundry away, if you wanted to, you know, sit down and talk or something." He gestured into his bedroom.

Lily nodded and followed him in. She had very rarely been into his bedroom. The door was usually shut when he wasn't home. She was surprised by how neat he kept it. It made her room look like a disaster zone, she thought.

"Looks good in here." She said, perching on the edge of his bed next to a pile of robes. "No wonder the rest of the place is a mess." She said, jokingly.

James chuckled a little. "Sometimes it's nice to come home to peace and order after a crazy day."

Lily watched silently for a moment while James straightened a robe and then hung it in his closet. When he turned around to get another one she said, "Do you remember that night? When we went out?"

"I remember not remembering, if that's what you're asking." He said, carefully placing the robe on the hanger. "It was a memory charm."

"Yeah." Lily bit her lower lip. "Not a very good one."

James turned to face her again. "Why, what do you remember?"

Lily shrugged. "Nothing, maybe. I don't know. It's more of a feeling than a memory."

"Go on. Tell me," James urged. He put down the robe he was holding and walked over to where Lily was sitting. "Whatever it is, it might help us figure it out."

"You're right." Lily sighed. "It's just that I feel like I'm going crazy for what is going through my head."

"I won't think you're crazy. I promise." James said, sitting next to her and patting her knee reassuringly.

She nodded her head. "Ok. I'll tell you. But don't freak out. It's just a feeling."

James's brow wrinkled with worry, but he nodded his head, signaling her to continue. Before she could, though, Sirius barged into the room.

"Hey, buddy, I just wanted to apologize" Sirius trailed off. "Am I interrupting?"

"No." Lily said, standing up. "Not at all." She made her way to the door. "I'll see you later,"

James watched her go, and couldn't help but feel frustrated with Sirius. He was so close to figuring out a piece of what was going on.

"I know that I shouldn't have been making light of the situation," Sirius said. "If it was the love of my life that didn't know I loved her, I would have been in the same place as you."

"Thanks," James said dryly. "I overreacted. I know you didn't mean anything by your teasing."

Sirius shrugged. "Are you sure I wasn't interrupting something?" Sirius raised his eyebrows curiously.

"It's fine." James sighed, and flopped back on his bed. "Lily was about to tell me something about that night we can't remember."

"Whoa. She remembers something?" Sirius looked shocked. "Does she know who charmed you?"

"I don't know!" James said. "You came in before she told me anything."

Sirius nodded. "Well, I'll head out now. Let me know what you find out."

James sat and thought about the situation after Sirius left. He couldn't make sense of anything though. There was still a hazy gap in his memory from that night. He was so tired from the adrenaline rush of the evening that he was sure no matter what Lily had to tell him, it wouldn't make sense, even if she told him that two plus two equals four.

James stood up and stretched before leaving his room and knocking softly on Lily's bedroom door. When there was so response, he tried again. When Lily still hadn't said anything, James opened the door a crack and peeked inside.

Lily was laying sideways on her bed sound asleep. She was still fully clothed, with her legs hanging off the side of the bed. James couldn't help but smile when he saw her. He opened the door the rest of the way and walked inside. Her alarm clock caught his eye. He almost couldn't believe that two hours ago he was standing outside the library looking for her, but finding her death eater ex-boyfriend.

He told himself that he wasn't going to think about it for the rest of the night. He walked over to the bed and gently picked Lily up. She stirred in her sleep, but didn't wake when he laid her down with her head on her pillows. He pulled the blankets up to her chin and smiled at how peaceful she looked.

"Good night, Lily," he said, gently pushing her hair off her face. He clicked off the lamp next to her bed and quietly closed the door behind him, hoping that he would be able to sleep as peacefully as Lily.

When Lily woke up the next morning, she felt like she had a bad dream. When the events of the night before came back to her, she realized that it was much worse than a bad dream, it was reality.

She sat up in bed and rubbed her face. She was so exhausted that she couldn't even remember going to bed the night before. The last thing that she remembered, she was in talking to James about the mysterious night they found themselves cold and confused in a shadowy doorway.

Had she told him? She couldn't remember. After being kidnapped and nearly killed by a group of death eaters, she had a hard time keeping her thoughts straight. She tried to keep herself composed on the outside, but inside, her emotions were like a stormy sea.

As she put her feet down on the floor, she noticed for the first time an ache in her ankles. She looked down and saw the raw marks where the ropes had bound her tightly to the chair. She took a deep breath and told herself that it was just a coincidence that she had been kidnapped. After all, what could she have done to anger the Death Eaters?

As soon as that thought was complete, another one came to her mind. _Tom_. She had almost forgotten about his role in the evening. How had she never known that he was a death eater? How was it possible that she opened up her life and her home to a man that was a Death Eater?

Lily was so confused by all of the thoughts in her head that she hardly noticed she was still fully dressed as she grabbed her towel and headed for the shower.

As the hot water pounded down on her aching body, new, more terrifying thoughts boiled up in Lily's head. What if she was a target? What if it wasn't a coincidence? What if Tom was never really interested in her, but was ordered to lure her away from her friends and kidnap her for the Dark Lord's purposes?

She shivered, despite the water that was so hot it was turning her skin red. She leaned against the wall of the shower, confused and unsure of what to do. Was it even safe for her to go to school or work?

Lily lost track of time and only got out of the shower once the water had a chill to it. When she opened the door, she was so distracted that she hardly noticed James sitting at the kitchen table.

"Ok?" He asked, concerned.

Lily smiled. "Yeah. I was just thinking."

"Oh. Well. I made pancakes." He gestured to the table. "You should have some. It was a rough night, you need sustenance."

Lily smiled. "Thanks. I'll be out in a minute." She tried not to think about what she would be doing if James and Sirius hadn't come and rescued her the night before. She knew for a fact that she wouldn't be eating pancakes while the bright morning sun shone onto the kitchen table. _I would be dead_, she thought.

"Thank you." Lily said.

James looked up. "No problem. It was a mix."

Lily smiled. "No. Thank you for everything. For saving me."

Funny story. My computer crashed shortly after I updated this story, you know, over a year ago. I just found an old jump drive in a box (I just moved. What a mess.) yesterday and I found the beginning of this chapter on it. I have never been able to find the outline for the entire story so I was overwhelmed by the thought of trying to piece it back together. I was inspired and I have completely revamped the story line, and finished this chapter. Go inspiration.


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